The Play Store is where you go to watch your other apps get updated, but occasionally it's nice to sit back and watch as the store gets its own renovation. Sometimes the changes are stark. Other times, there are just a few new lights here or there.

What's New?

In version 5.4, it's not about what's been added, but what's been taken away. The notification bar has lost its color. Now Play Store pages appear with banner images that reach towards the top of the screen. The green strip doesn't return to the bar until you start to scroll down.

Left: Old,Right: New

The amount of chrome at the top of the screen has gradually eroded since 5.2. Googler Kirill Grouchnikov shared an image highlighting this on Google+.

This release also temporarily gets rid of all of the Play Store widgets from the homescreen's add menu, including those that show what media you have saved in your library (otherwise known as the widget that you immediately removed when first launching the device) as well as the one that makes recommendations... but only on Nexus devices (tested on a Nexus 5, 7, and 9). However, restarting the devices brought the widgets back. All non-Nexus phones and tablets we've installed 5.4 on did not exhibit this behavior.

To get the APK, you know what to do. Let us know if you come across any additional changes.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.